1. In the House - Ask your representative to support the Weiner and Kucinich amendments

Sometime in the next two or three weeks, Rep. Anthony Weiner's (D-N.Y.) amendment to substitute single-payer legislation (along the lines of Rep. Conyers' H.R. 676) for the House leadership's bill, H.R. 3200, will come up for an up-or-down vote on the House floor.

This is the first time single payer will have been put to a full floor vote in our nation's history, and it presents us with a unique opportunity to hold our representatives accountable on this issue. While the individual mandate approach to reform embodied in the Senate Finance bill would leave 25 million Americans uninsured, single payer would assure coverage for every American, as even President Obama has admitted. (You can find the number of people uninsured in your congressional district here.)

Additionally, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has secured a provision in H.R. 3200 that would allow individual states to adopt their own single-payer systems.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will introduce two single-payer amendments to the Senate bill, one to create a national single-payer plan (along the lines of S. 703), and the other to allows individual states to adopt single payer.

Urge your senators to vote "YES" on the Sanders' single payer amendments.

Political figures, commentators and editorial writers are now routinely citing the study's finding of 45,000 deaths annually in their discussions of our health care crisis. Even Sen. Max Baucus has cited it, erroneously asserting that "[my] bill would fix that." (Actually, his bill would leave some 25 million uninsured, which translates into about 25,000 deaths annually.)

PNHPer and "Mad as Hell Doctor" Dr. Paul Hochfeld was admitted at the last minute to Obama's press event with physicians Monday and appeared on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" show on MSNBC. The Mad as Hell Doctors, led by Hochfeld and Dr. Mike Huntington, wound up their 26-city, nationwide tour with a rally in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 30. They received extensive regional press.